Taliban commander recaptured, three rebels killed

KANDAHAR  ( 2008-04-01 15:00:52 ) : 

A mid-level Taliban commander who twice escaped from Afghan jails was recaptured following a clash that left three of his fighters dead, police said on Tuesday.
Mullah Naqibullah was captured in fighting in the southern province of Helmand on Monday, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.
Three of his fighters were killed after the rebel commander and his colleagues, who wore police uniforms, attacked a police patrol near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Andiwal said.
The police chief said Naqibullah, who is said to have close ties with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, had bought his way out of prison in Lashkar Gah in January after a similar escape from a Kabul jail two years ago.
"His capture is a big success. He had already escaped twice from prisons in Kabul and Lashkar Gah," Andiwal said.
Three policemen were also slightly injured in the clash, he added.
The Taliban, the key militant group behind an insurgency that has left thousands of Afghans dead, are trying to topple the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Danish soldier killed, three Germans hurt in Afghanistan

KABUL  ( 2008-03-27 19:07:56 ) : 

A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded and three German troops were also hurt in attacks in Afghanistan blamed on insurgents linked to the Taliban movement, military officials said.
Danish forces were on patrol on Wednesday in the southern province of Helmand province, a hotbed of Taliban activity, when they came under fire, said a spokesman with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"Regrettably as a result of the firefight one Danish soldier was killed and another was wounded," British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Miller told AFP.
In the far north two German soldiers were seriously injured and a third slightly wounded when a blast struck their vehicle near the city of Kunduz overnight, Afghan officials and the German military said.
The two seriously wounded would be evacuated to Germany soon, a spokesman for the military command centre in the eastern German city of Potsdam said.
Kunduz governor Mohammad Omar told AFP the blast was caused by a remotely detonated roadside bomb but this was not immediately confirmed by the German military.
"It was the enemies of peace in Afghanistan," Omar said. The term is most often used to refer to Taliban-linked militants. ISAF in Afghanistan did not immediately have information.

Car bomb in Afghan market kills 8: police

KABUL  ( 2008-03-26 18:48:16 ) : 

A car bomb exploded in a market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday killing at least eight people and wounding 17, police said.
Taliban insurgents have vowed to intensify attacks on Afghan and foreign troops countrywide, launch a wave of suicide bombings and attack supply lines from Pakistan this year in their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government.
But provincial police chief Hussain Andiwal said no members of the security forces were in the farmers' market in Girishk district when the bomb went off.
"The explosives were inside a car parked in a weekly market where a sizable number of people were buying and selling goods," Andiwal said.
"The target was civilians. There no foreign or Afghan forces in the area," he said.

Taliban attack shows need to address terror threat: UN chief

 

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon suggested that the deadly attack by Taliban militants on a Kabul luxury hotel targeted the Norwegian foreign minister and said it highlighted the need for action against extremist violence.
"I am very much surprised by this terrorist attack against the foreign minister of Norway (Jonas Gahr Stoere)," the secretary general told reporters here.
He was referring to the attack which killed six people, including an American, and injured six in Kabul's posh Serena hotel while Stoere was inside.
"I feel fortunate that he (Stoere) was not injured, but that really confirms that we must take necessary measures to address" terrorism, Ban said.
He noted that his upcoming attendance at a Madrid meeting aimed at fostering greater cross-cultural understanding "is part of that kind of campaign by the international community."
Ban was to join other personalities from around the world at the January 15-16 Alliance of Civilizations forum gathering hosted by the Spanish government.
The Alliance is a 2005 initiative by former UN chief Kofi Annan and the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey aimed at bringing together institutions and civil society to bridge prejudices and misunderstandings between peoples of different cultures and religions.
Stoere was unharmed in the attack -- which included a suicide blast -- and took shelter with other guests in the basement afterwards, hotel and Norwegian officials said.

Brown in hot seat over 'Taliban contacts'

LONDON (AFP) - Claims that top officials talked to the Taliban in Afghanistan threatened fresh embarrassment Thursday for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had previously ruled out negotiations with the militia.
Two senior officials — the second most senior European Union official in the country and a top UN political advisor — have been expelled by the Afghan govt amid claims they had contacts with the Taliban.
In addition, Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper said that agents from Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service MI6 repeatedly met Taliban representatives earlier this year.
Talking to the Taliban would be in contradiction to Brown’s stated policy of not talking to a militia that is currently fighting 7,000 British troops as part of an international force in Afghanistan, critics said.
“We will not enter into any negotiations with these people,” Brown told lawmakers earlier this month.
He added, though, that he supported Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s efforts at reconciliation, adding that there was a place in society for former insurgents if they were prepared to renounce violence.

Karzai calls for ‘terror’ focus outside Afghanistan

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday the US-led "war on terror" should be directed at terror sanctuaries outside his country which he said was not a "hideout for terrorism" but a victim.
Karzai's comments to media come days after the Pentagon said the US military and its NATO allies were reviewing plans for the troubled nation, where violence from a Taliban-led insurgency has soared in recent years.
The president told a press briefing to mark the first day of Eidul Azha that for almost three years he had called for the international community to "revise their strategy in the war on terrorism."
"Their presence in Afghanistan must be against terrorism which has hideouts that are outside (of Afghanistan), its training and support bases that are outside," he said.
There are more than 60,000 international troops helping the Afghan government to battle Taliban and other insurgents and to train up its own forces and establish its authority across the fractured country.
The foreign troops are not allowed to conduct their operations outside Afghanistan even though it is acknowledged that many militants are trained in extremist sanctuaries in neighbouring Pakistan.
Karzai has argued that the intense fighting here exacts a high cost in civilian life and damage to property but does not target the roots of the problem.
"Afghanistan is not a hideout for terrorism," he said Wednesday. "It is the victim of terrorism."
Karzai also reiterated that the international forces should reduce the use of air power - said to cause the most civilian losses - as it "takes the struggle on terrorism to nowhere."
Afghanistan has seen a sharp spike in violence in the past two years, with 2007 the bloodiest since a US-led invasion toppled the brutal Taliban regime six years ago.
Karzai has this year increased his emphasis on reconciliation with Taliban fighters who accept the country's new constitution.
He repeated the message in his Eid address, particularly reaching out to Taliban forced from a key stronghold in the southern province of Helmand in a high-profile military operation last week.
"I call on Taliban brothers, the Taliban in Musa Qala, you are the sons of this land, come back to your homes and lands and live in Musa Qala and avoid war," he said.
Musa Qala was recaptured last Monday after being in Taliban control for 10 months.